Rettenberg Castle

Rettenberg Castle
	The main castle from the south
Alternative name (s):	Vorderburg Castle
Creation time :	around 1100
Castle type :	Höhenburg, spur location
Conservation status:	ruin
Standing position :	Nobles
Construction:	Quarry stone, Nagelfluhquader
Place:	Rettenberg- Großdorf
Geographical location	47 ° 37 '2 " N , 10 ° 19' 42" E Coordinates: 47 ° 37 '2 " N , 10 ° 19' 42" E
Height:	1020 m above sea level NN

The castle Rettenberg (also: Castle Vorderburg ) is located approximately 600 meters northwest of the community Rettenberg belonging village large village in about 1020 meters above sea level on the northern ridge end of Rottach mountain in Oberallgäu ( Bavarian Swabia ). The ruins of the high to late medieval tower castle have been cordoned off since the beginning of 2013 due to the risk of falling rocks.

history

The hilltop castle above the Iller valley was built around 1100 as the seat of the mighty Lords of Rettenberg. Before 1130, a nobility law from Rotinberch appears in a written source as Vogt of the Augsburg monastery of St. Ulrich and Afra .

The Rettenbergers were probably originally servants of the Guelphs and joined the Staufer entourage around 1185 . The family is considered to be the most important noble family of the Oberallgäu, to which the bailiffs of numerous monasteries in this region were transferred. The Lords of Trauchburg and Hohenegg branched off from the Rettenbergers in the 12th century . In the 13th century, these two sexes produced some outstanding representatives of Staufer and Habsburg imperial politics.

In addition to their ancestral castle, the Rettenbergers also had several other castle seats in today's Swabia and the neighboring Tyrolean Ausserfern (castles Vilsegg , Eisenberg , Nesselburg , Burgberg ).

The followers of the Rettenbergers included numerous lower aristocratic families, some of whose residences have been preserved in the area as castle stables . These servants were located in Maiselstein, Burgegg, Hindelang , Wertach and Haslach , for example .

Heinrich von Rettenberg died around 1350 without a male heir. The property was divided between the two daughters of the lord of the castle. Elisabeth, the wife of Georg von Starkenberg, received the rule of Rettenberg. Her sister Adelheid von Waldburg was assigned the rule of Burgberg.

Just one year later, the sisters sold their inheritance. Rettenberg went to the Hochstift Augsburg for only 1,600 pounds pfennig Konstanz currency . The favorable purchase price is likely to be due to the contestation of the inheritance by Count Wilhelm von Kirchberg. The over-indebted Burgberg lordship could also be acquired from the von Heimenhofen family at a very affordable price for 2040 pounds of Constance Pfennig .

The Augsburg bishopric occupied Rettenberg Castle with a caretaker who was subordinate to an ammann and a clerk. Around 1385 the Augsburgers had to pledge the rule briefly , but redeemed the pledge before 1400.

In 1525 the farmers of the Rettenberg care also joined the Allgäu Federation . The powder of the insurgents came from a. also from Rettenberg Castle, which was apparently looted. After the defeat of the peasants near Leubas, the victorious Swabian Federation stored the weapons of the defeated in the castles of Rettenberg and Fluhenstein. On October 25th, the nurse Andreas von Hohenegg was involved in the negotiation of the "Martinszeller Contract", with which the fighting in the area of the prince monastery of Kempten ended.

In 1534 the fortress was restored under the care of Hans von Hohenegg zu Vilsegg. The ballroom in the main building was “paneled”, the roofs were re-covered and the inner and outer walls were plastered. The renovation cost a total of 1626 guilders.

On September 12, 1562 the castle burned down almost completely due to the carelessness of a drunk cook. The keeper Marquard von Schwendi is said to have lost all his household items and two horses in the fire . A cost estimate estimated the complete reconstruction of the fire ruin at 1774 guilders. Because of the high costs, the Hochstift only commissioned the most necessary repairs.

The seat of the Augsburg maintenance office was then moved to the nearby Burgberg Castle. When the Augsburg bishop visited his care in 1573, however, his subjects paid homage to him on the meadow in front of Rettenberg Castle.

Even when the Augsburg cathedral capitular Rudolf von Rechberg traveled to the Augsburg nursing offices as administrator of the minor bishop in 1650 , the dignitary below the fire ruins was given an elaborate reception.

In 1735, the bishopric finally moved the administration of the rule to the new office building in Vorderburg. 50 years later, the castle's residential tower is described as half collapsed.

With the rest of the bishopric of Augsburg, the care of Rettenberg came to the Electorate of Bavaria in 1802/03 .

Today only two high, highly endangered wall sections are reminiscent of one of the oldest tower castles in the Allgäu. While Langenegg Castle , located below in an Illerschleife, was secured at the end of the 20th century, no renovation measures can be seen on Rettenberg. The ruin has not yet been included in the catalog of the Allgäu castle region . In the medium term, the total loss of one of the historically most important castle ruins in the Allgäu is to be feared.

description

The interior of the residential tower

The southwest part of the ruin

View to the east into the high valley

The remains of the Spornburg rise on an almost square rock head (approx. 30 × 30 meters) in the northwest of the summit ridge, which overlooks the Illertal by about 300 meters. In the east, the elongated Rottachberg is accompanied by a high valley. A marked path enables a comfortable ascent via the former office building in Vorderburg (approx. 20 minutes). The ascent from the Illertal takes just under an hour from the Rottachmühle.

Remains of the castle complex have only survived on the castle plateau in the south and west. The total of around 18 meters long south wall against the attack side has no windows. Some window openings can be seen in the west wall (length approx. 9 meters). Here the vertically sloping castle rock secured the fortress. The remains of the wall still tower up to 9 meters high. The western edge of the building is rounded.

The main castle apparently consisted only of a mighty residential tower or tower house, which was preceded by a narrow gate kennel in the southeast . The outer shell consists of large Nagelfluh blocks of local origin, some of which were grouted with small rubble. The Rottachberg is mainly made up of Nagelfluh, which is interspersed with other types of rock. Narrow sandstone slabs are inserted between some stone layers . The inner shell is also made of rolling stones and rubble stones ( risk of falling rocks ).

The cost estimate from 1562/63 allows a reconstruction of the state before the major fire. The main building had a basement, partly carved into the rock. Above were three floors, which were crowned by a pitched roof (grain floor).

Inside there was a large (approx. 10 × 20 meter) hall on each floor with massive walls. Smaller chambers with transom walls were built onto these intermediate walls against the outer shell. The utility rooms were on the ground floor, above the offices of the Rettenberg care officials. The nurse himself resided on the upper floor. The representative main hall, the "great Soller", was also located here.

A spiral staircase made it possible to climb to the top floor. A paneled chapel and a stables next to the entrance are also mentioned.

Georg Weidenkeller was able to document the south wall with the gate in 1837. His two drawings are now in the Kempten City Archives .

The plateau facing south-west probably had a small outer bailey , of which no wall remains and only a few traces of terrain have survived.

literature

Franz Ludwig Baumann : History of the Allgäu . 3 volumes, Kempten 1883–1895.
Toni Nessler: Castles in the Allgäu, Volume 1: Castle ruins in the Altlandkreis Kempten and Altlandkreis Sonthofen . 1st edition. Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag, Kempten 1985, ISBN 3-88006-102-5 , pp. 176-192.
Michael Petzet : District Sonthofen (The art monuments of Bavaria, Swabia, Volume 8). Munich 1964.
Josef Stadelmann: Vorderburg and the Rettenberg rule . Kempten 1948, pp. 15-60.
Alfred Weitnauer : Allgäu Chronicle . 2 volumes, Kempten 1969–1971.

Web links

Commons : Burg Rettenberg - Collection of images, videos and audio files

alpsee-gruenten.de: Vorderburg ruins